Tag: 1st Amendment

Speaking at Georgetown University on Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited Daily WireEditor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro’s controversial appearance at the University of California, Berkeley on September 14 as a prime example of how the Left attempts to shut down free speech in America.

Sessions began the segment of his speech by referring to the leftist, violent group Antifa as “Orwellian-named”:

The Orwellian-named antifascist protestors have successfully shut down numerous campus speaker events in recent months with violent riots. Berkeley was reportedly forced to spend $600,000 and have an overwhelming police presence to simply prove that the mob was not in control of their campus, the “home of free speech.” In advance, the school offered counseling, in advance of this speech they offered counseling to any students or faculty whose sense of safety or belonging was threatened by a speech from Ben Shapiro, a 33-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer, who has frequently been targeted by anti-Semites for his Jewish faith and who vigorously condemns hate speech from the Left or the Right.

Well, in the end, Mr. Shapiro spoke to a packed house, and to my knowledge, no one fainted; no one was unsafe; no one needed counseling.

“I hope,” Sessions joked.

He continued, “Yet after this small victory for free speech, a student speaking to a reporter said, in reaction, ‘I don’t think Berkeley should host any controversial speakers on either side.’ That, perhaps, would be the worst lesson to draw from that episode, I firmly believe.”

A statement signed by 30 faculty members of Georgetown University protesting Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ speech on campus Tuesday contained multiple falsehoods.

Sessions spoke at Georgetown’s law school about free speech Tuesday, and the statement was released prior to his speech as an act of protest.

“We acknowledge our colleague’s right to invite Attorney General Sessions to speak on campus,” the letter, signed mostly by law school faculty, stated. “However, we, the undersigned, condemn the hypocrisy of Attorney General Sessions speaking about free speech.”

The letter went on to say, “Sessions’ own office is currently prosecuting Desiree Fairooz for unlawful conduct; her alleged crime is laughing for a few seconds during Sessions’ Senate confirmation hearings last January and then loudly protesting her unlawful arrest.”

However, the office prosecuting Desiree Fairooz is the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colombia, which was led at the time by Channing Phillips, an Obama appointee. Read more of the errors in the Georgetown Law Profs. statement at DailyCaller